NH says it's prepared for nuclear war

"I think that the president, again, as commander-in-chief, I think he felt it necessary to issue a very strong statement directly to North Korea", he added.

The announcement Thursday warned that the North is preparing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny island, which hosts 7,000 USA military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 160,000.

While Reif says that the United States now possesses a nuclear arsenal that's more than adequate for defense needs-boasting some 4,000 nuclear warheads, close to half of which are now deployed at various bases-it's also not true that the arsenal is "stronger and more powerful than ever before".

An adviser to President Donald Trump said it was "simply nonsensical" to think that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should discuss U.S. military decisions in relation on North Korea. Another included a video clip of Trump vowing to respond to North Korean threats with "fire and fury". While the review may recommend changes, as a 2010 review by Mr. Obama did, it has yet to be completed.

Mr. Trump suggested in tweets that in his almost seven months of serving as commander in chief, he has made the arsenal more robust.

White House deputy advisor Sebastian Gorka on Thursday forcefully dismissed talk from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that "Americans should sleep well at night", as it relates to North Korea. "He's not going to contain the threat, he's going to stop the threat", Mr Graham told CBS. "In fairness, there has not been time for such plans to have been prepared, reviewed and implemented, so this is not a surprise", he said.

"China calls on all sides to uphold the main direction of a political resolution to the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, and avoid any words or actions that may intensify the problem and escalate the situation", the government said in a statement sent to Reuters, repeating its customary stance.